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tv   Washington Journal  CSPAN  December 19, 2009 7:00am-10:00am EST

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prepare the 2009 taxes with õauerbach. a certified accountant. "washington journal" is next. captioning institute ---www.ncicap.org--- [captions copyright national [capatellite corp. 2009] nal >> the house of representatives is gone for the holidays but that light at the top of the capital means that the senate is at work right now. the plan is for an early morning vote this morning on the 626 õbillion dollar defense spendin bill and other matters before resuming work on the healthcare bill. we'll talk about that a little later in the program. but first, ut want to welcome you to the "washington journal". good morning today is saturday, december 19th and for the first half hour we want to talk about the white house proposal to move detainees from guantanamo bay to a federal prison in illinois.
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we want to find out what you think will become accomplished by that and numbers on the screen. (202) 737-0002 for republicans and (202) 737-0002 for democrats and independents. (202) 628-0205. if you want to send us an e-mail this morning the address is journal atc pan dot org or you can follow us on twitter. at c-spanwj. this morning, the topic is the lead item in this the morning's "washington post" in the editorial section. get more north. gaping hole in administrations plan to move terrorism detainees to a u.s. prison. they write the obama administration is right to continue steady march to close the facility as that the u.s. naval base in cuba, but it will under mine the benefit office a
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f it merely moves them office a from one place to another without changing the policies that led to international condemnation of the prison. white house announced on tuesday it plans to purchase the thompson correctional center in illinois, a state prison to house some of the retaining 200 guantanamo detainees. the prison was built in 2001 as a maximum security center and can hold up to 1600 inmate's although only 200 are there. administration plans to usq different parts of facility to hold federal criminal inmate's and terrorism suspects. plans for call for construction of court rooms for military commission proceedings and we'll get back to more of this editorial and some other items in the news this morning regarding guantanamo but first the phones and brian in michigan. i don't want to, is that - good
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morning, brian. caller: good morning. first i'd like to support the president barack obama administration concerning guantanamo closing. we'll regular liez our legal system. these people that are guilty will be tried in court. some of them tried in military commission's and we're going to close something that's an abomination. secondly, this about the global warming folks in washington d.c. look at your window. look at the snow coming down. global warming is not just global warming it's chaotic climate change. the atlantic diver is climbing beneath the fresh cold water in the ice melt in the green land and poll. host: thanks for the science lesson. stick with the discussion this morning about what's accomplished by moving detainees to guantanamo to illinois.
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next call from pennsylvania. steve for republicans, welcome. caller: good morning. yeah i think that my opinion, the only thing that's accomplish supply and demand president barack obama will be able to go before a joint house of congress and say look i closed guantanamo bay like i said. politics here and simple the man is nothing but a campaigner and chief. i don't have a lot of faith in the president barack obama administration and i hope they close it. host: steve, before you go, if the president of the administration didn't move them from guantanamo to some place here in the united states, is it your opinion that they should stay in guantanpsz indefinitely? caller: yeah, so what. it's better than the other choices. especially for is soldiers on the field. i'd rather be captured than kill and t$e battlefield. host: thanks for your call. lawmakers should not stand in the way of this dep&. some in congress have raised
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security concerns about holding terrorism suspects on the american soil. fear mongers has thought american has held convicted terrorists without incident. the editorial says lawmakers should reject administrations claim that it need no new legal framework to offer in definite detentijju of inmate's without charge. like the push administration before it points to the 2001 detention. as federal court as ordered 20018 sufficient to protect the right of the detainees and multiple agency executive task force will review cases to determine where detention is still necessary or justified even if a federal court signs off on the original detention decision. back to the phones our topic for
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the first 25 minutes of the program. moving detainees from guantanamo to the united states. what's accomplished? dc, washington. new caller: i actually agree with the editorial your reading. i kind of agree with that. all we're doing is warehousing these detainees. for in definite appeared yous of time and it doesn't answer the question. what will we do them for the rest of their lives. lot of these people are dangerous but we don't have a framework for actual justice for the people. host: so in your opinion what's the difference between housing them here or in guantanamo bay? >> none as far as i'm concerned. it's just moving them from one warehouse to another. host: so you're saying nothing accomplished by moving them here? caller: like the last caller
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"tsaid, you know, virtually all obama is doing is saying i did what i said i would do. on that point, i agree with him. there's no answering of the larger question of how we're going to go and solve this for good. it's just - we're pushing a side the problem for later and that's not what i voted for obama for. accountability all the way down the line is what i did. it's my mistakes for believing that i could get some sort of accountability for stuff like this. host: next call from pam in port ann, new york. caller: good morning. on a practical side one thing accomplished by moving detainees is probably great savings in cost to shipment back and forth to care for them. to bring in supplies and so forth. but on the larger issue, it's really important that people implicate themselves on the
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complicated issues of this áu!ject before they have an opinion. and i would recommend that they read the dark side by jane mayer. the big complexity here ironically enough, obama is protecting george bush by not trying many of these people in open court because they're, the testimony against them came from torture. and in many cases they would be let go because you can't accept testimony or evidence that's obtained through there so it's a very complicated issue so before having an opinion, find out the various aspects for it before deciding black or white on the issue. thanks for letting me speak. host: next call from bruce for independents out of jacksonville, florida. what's accomplished by this? caller: um... lots of people in
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illinois are going to get a new job. [laughs] that wasn't very funny. the lady that just spoke a minute ago. guantanamo bay is a naval base they don't have to move anybody anywhere. they have all the facilities there to take care of them, and they're isolated from, you know terrorists being able to attack the cities surrounding illinois% prison. - and these people are terrorists, they're not enemy combatants so they're not covered under the geneva conversion and there's no precedent for you know, what to actually do with them, you know? and some were caught on the battlefield so i don't really understand why we're going through other than the president promised to do this, but you know, we're created 3,000 new jobs in illinois, which you
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know, he's from illinois so you draw your own conclusions. host: speaking of the people in illinois this is in the "wall street journal" this morning with the headline guantanamo detainees welcome here. expecting an economic bonanza. talk the waining about the maximum security prison and there is some nervousness about the plan in the article by joe barret. but most peo(le are eager for the 3,000 jobs the facility brings to an area where unemployment is about 7 pq)cent. read more about the town where they hope to move the guantanamo bay detain theees in this morning cash "washington journal". good morning. caller: good question. what is accomplished? i don't see anything accomplished. i think these are murderers terrorists and they are soldiers. they're soldiers that hide
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themselves and they should be tried militarily and i don't think that they should bring the case to new york because every muslim in the world will have it's eyes on it and every child will be out the how horrible we are and these people are going to have a method of speaking to us the terrorists will and it will be a terrible thing for the united states in front of the world. i say leave guantanamo the way it is. it's much safer to have them there. the terrorists are not going away. okay me the head of iran said he's hoping to get rid of the united states and how wonderful the world will be without us. the best thing to do is keep guantanamo and why is president barack obama trying get rid of get m o when he has the chinese friends that he wants to maybe help them get their oil that
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they're taking out of florida. the horizontal drilling. host: jane, let's stay with guantanamo bay. thoáq people that hate us #or whatever reason, know that we're the ones that hold the keys to guantanamo bay so what difference does it make whether or not we hold the keys at guantanamo or a prison in illinois. caller: then your focusing the united states having prisoners in it's country. everyone in chicago, we have black muslims in this country and muslims in this country, will be hating us for the fact that we're holding them here. nobody hears anything of what's going on in guantanamo because it's all done very religiously and very militarily and it's done well. if we don't have a place to hold these prisoners, it's going to be a problem because we are going to have trouble once these trials begin in the united states.
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i don't like to predict much but i'm telling you. holder has no reason in the world to take these - this trial to new york. host: thanks for your call. mo)e on the editorial from the post this morning. the president needs the ability to hold a suspect where there is hard intelligence that he's too dangerous to release but no president, regardless of party should be able to wield this power unilaterally as the president barack obama administration says it can. congress should establish guidelines to set judicial review perio"ically and each detainee has an attorney. president barack obama will defeat the purpose of closing guantanamo if he continues to employ baileys the lawest policies of the past. joe in philadelphia for caller: how you doing? host: joe, what do you think will be accomplished by moving them from guantanamo bay?
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caller: nothing because - i know most of the war veterans like i am, are vietnam veterans and we're well aware of whoa is seriously a terrorist. if they where you say really a terrorist they wouldn't have been taken a live. the public has been dupeded as something that was left over for "tuz i believe that if people will just pay attention to meaningless. host: thanks for your call. next up is dave in chicago on our line for independents. good morning dave. caller: hi. i think it shows in your newspaper that your reading that they're concernqd about how to house united states citizens of terrorist. guantanamo has been away to get around the geneva convention the last hundred years.
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host: dave, the town, thompson illinois. how far is that from chicago? caller: think about 100 miles west of chicago. host: and say they go ahead with this plan to move some of the detainees or all of them though to this prison in thompson, illinois. õdo you feel more concerned you area of the country might come under attack from terrorists? caller: no, i feel the whole country will be under attack by administration because they're terrorists so they'll accuse all these citizens from this and now they don't have to keep the lawyers away from them. they can do it right here in illinois. host: gene new jersey ft. lauderdale? caller: good morning. what really concerns me is the air space that we have áo protect where as in cuba the cuban government takes care of
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air space and people are well aware how dangerous it is to fly over cuba. the other (art is, down there in by guantanamo that's covered by our navy and our air force, and being that this place in illinois is so much in open space, i liking it to what happened in new york. how long it took them to get in any type of sense out of a presidential plane flying over new york and not much able to be done about it. everybody was concerned about it. can you just imagine what will happen in m illinois with these wide open spaces. and perhaps, that they might try and make that place a target? and then the other thick the circus that will be created there in that little town.
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with all the media and everything else. it just seems so counter productive to our american way of life that what we have done as an ex-military person, what we have always done is the military takes care of the military and why are president would want to change that, it really gives you because. what's his purpose? what does he really want to do? host: we continue our discussion regarding moving guantanamo detainee and what it might accomplish. as we do that we'll look at other items in the newspaper this morning. the president just wrapping up discussions in copenhagen regarding climate change. "new york post" has this front page headline. hot air, frantic van cuts deal as climate talks. wash out and or watch out. this is how it looks in this mornings's "wall street
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journal". emission curbs are weak. u.s. calls compromise with china and india a first step. this is the headline the way iá looks in the morning's "new york times". five nations forge pact on climate, goals go unmet. break through is declared bio bah ma but many nations are unhappy. take a look at more stories regarding that and editorials as well. back to the phones. pennsylvanrp gregory for independents. caller: hihi.i have a basic question to ask, and that is that, how did we feel about our detainees when our men were held in vietnam which i am part of that era and that draft. we basically hated, hated the vietnam people for holding our
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people and i think that's what we're doing now. we're putting the bulls eye on illinois's guantanamo was a neutral type site and we're just adding more than jobs. we're adding apart of the country that is basically going to be a target. i think a target and - i don't think three thousand jobs is worth - worth what we're going to in occur as far as hatred from the world. host: howard in tulsa, oak la hoe massachusetts what's achieved or accomplished by bringing the detainees from guantanamo bay? caller: the main reason to bring them to the united states is they attacked the united stateák move them to the united states, try them in the united states. found guilty and convict them in
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the united states. found guilty and execute them in the united states. it was against the united states. coverage of the just concluded talks in copenhagen regarding climate change. their headline. climate deal falls short of key goals. many major nations reach a cord but fail to craft a treaty. they write, the deal falls far short of many countries expectations for the summit and leave as comprehensive battle change for climate change potentially years away although the deal included china, india and bray sil and south africa. not universally freed pop by the nations attending the summit. in fact, some nations left early in a parent frustration. for the president barack obama administration the focus of climate debate shifts from the global stage to the domestic one
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though obama voiced hopes from õgreater hopes for the modest agreement that may help administration as it pressed congress to pass landmark climate change legislation. back to the phones. parkers berg, west virginia. jeff from republicans. good morning. caller: i don't think bringing the prisoners here to illinois or new york to try them is a good thing. opens the door to let them be re&eased for the simple fact that when you bring them here and try them in a civilian court, they're liable for our rules of how our courts decide what evidence can be used against them. they can decide that the evidence that was found ouá by using torture - so-called torture - can be disemploy bowed and be found innocent. the whole purpose of them tried
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by a military court, was to be so that they can use that stu#f. they was tried already and convicted. - and we need to standby the military court. it's worked so many years for us and worked us in the second world war and worked for us in trials that happened over in bosnia. nobody has said anything about that. host: you think making proposal to bring them out of guantanamo administration is expressing that it's not particularly satisfied or iá doesn't really have the confidence that you have in a military commission or tribunal? caller: no, i think what is it, is a political statement if you remember when he ran, he wanted to close guantanamo for the simple fact that everybody was saying it was illegal. "tr&legal. these people are terrorists. they came over and a tacked us for no reason other than the fact that they don't have a good
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enough like life like we have. they wanted to destroy our lives for no reason other than for e killing. they think that they die they get 72 virgins and gold the and go to their heaven. they don't even know what the koran stands for. host: leave it there. baltimore sun, what's happening right behind us in the senate. health bill clock ticks is the headline. story in the tribune by janet hook and leavey write with a critical vote looming. harry reed struggled friday to convince alone democrat hold out to back the bill. ben nelson over the sensitive issue of abortion. the article goes on to say nelson emerged from reid's office friday night wráhout a deal saying he needed to review
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a new propose toll ensure no federal funding could be used to pay for elective abortions. this is a discussion on-going. there's a lu of different moving parts. san diego, california on the line for democrats. go ahead. caller: how you doing? host: what do you think about the proposal and what it'j going to accomplish? caller: well i would like to say most of the american public is educated through propaganda and why do i say that? we have people that are incarcerated at guantanamo yet we don't know who these people are or what they've done. everyone assumes because of the immediate dwlat these people are so-called terrorists, and i'm not going to comment on the they should be tried in america but i don't understand the whole situation when people are incarcerated with no due process regardless of where they're from. people just continue to assume
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that these people are terrorists. i just feel that everyone deserves the riu to affair trial and if they're true terrorists prove it in court whether in cuba or america, and wherever they're from then we can know what these people are about. they're just ghosts right now. no one knows who these people response to surge of home-grown terrorism cases by see paston rate l.a. involving american suspects. homeland security secretary. janet says her department is deploying more employment analysts and expanding teams that do outreach with muslim communities. she outlined a strategy this week against radicalization that featured stepped up intelligence sharing with city and state law enforcement agencies as well
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increases efforts to engage american muslims and prevent backlash against them. pennsylvania. on our line for independents. good morning. caller: good morning. the president is doing a wonderful job to resolve an on-going issue of that, being there from the previous of this government and he has just like, you know just like the small pieces that the outreach is being done and all the other things being done and i think transferring the prisoners is just one small piece in a big puzzle. it is a very big task to clean up something he did not start. he has gone through many different avenues and i'm not going to say i know all of them but he's been trying all along. had made the commitment and i felt he was very honest making that commitment to resolve this issue. which is just a bad press for
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our country. so i think this is a small piece in the puzzle. i think over all, he is listening to our voices and he does agree with the fact that this has to be settled in a judicial way one way or another and i want to thank him for all his hard work. host: preview of an option editorial by vicki kennedy the widow of the late senator ted ken different she writes ted often said we can't let the perfect be the enemy of the good. it's better to get 1/2 loaf than no loaf at all especially with so many lives at stakes. she's talking about the debate this weekend in the senate over the healthcare bill. she goes on to say, if it were easy he told me it would have been done a long time ago. he predicted as the senate got closer to a vote compromises would be necessary and many ardent supporters would want to walk away.
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read sjut in "washington post". florida on the line for republicans. jeff, are you there? caller: - host: jersey city, new jer s n. go ahead. caller: i just think some @&% people are gives it more pain than needed. the republicans have shown they're lack of our justice system here and quite frankly, it's if they committed the crime on americans they should be tried in front of american citizens if you tell someone, if an individual was suspected of a criminal and let's say they say bob is a krim. bob, we think % that you're a criminal and know you've committed crimes before so we're going to hold you in
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jail and keep you in jail until we can trump up charges on you. it's against human rights. these individuals need to be put back into the criminal justice system and tried in the american justice system and as independent caller stated before, if they're convicted they should receive the death penalty in the united states. host: in this lead editorial in the wall street journal under guantanamo north and east they wrap up the editorial saying, saver the irony. mr. obama said he had to close guantanamo and was a kre recruited tool for terrorists and now they're defending in definite detention for some of those who relocate to illinois. we doubt, al qaeda will stop denounceing the u.s. merely because it's comrades have moved to a state side super max. this is what happens when a new president rushs to fulfill a
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)eckless campaign promise without a plan or parent thought. here from california. sorry about that. kim on the line for independents. caller: hi. i think there are assumptions throughout the country that the detainees are automatically guilty regardless of whether they're detained or remained detained guantanamo or united states they need to be tried fairly and they can't be assumed they're all guilty. they need fair treatment. and that's really it. you just can't assume that each and everyone of those people are terrorisás just like you can't assume each person for the own court system and prisons are guilty. thank you. host: thank you very much for your call and all the folks that participated in the last segment. we'll take a short broo break "tp'd when we come back.
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u.s. policy in afghanistan with ashraf haidari. we'll be right back. ♪ >> he was not on imposing figure or a giant of his time and yet he emerged as a nominee at a time when the party wpj populated by big figures. >> his mark on history included manifestesttv any and james poke a country of vast designs. robert merry looks at the life and times of the 11th president. áu'day on c-span's q & a. book t.v. this weekend. timothy corny suggeáuq"
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president barack obama is a champion of big business and wall street. it's obaman o mics and all girl schools set up in pakistan and afghanistan. interviewed by marry mack. get the entire weekend schedule at book t.v. dot org and lists of the best books from the year from around the country. >> today on america and the courts supreme court reporters discuss a good quarrel about cases argued before the court. that's at 7:00 here on c-span. >> "washington journal" continues. >> juaning us now is ashraf haidari who is the embassy of afghanistan political counselor and acting defense attache'. presidents announced he's sending 30,000 troops for
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addráional afghanistan support. the moves by the president, karzai to keep current ministers in their top cabinet jobs. tells us what you know about that? guest: yes, the president has a list of the new cabinet members to the afghan parliament for approval. includes current members as well as new ministers and some that have been moved around. host: and are most of these ministers friendly to the united states? do they want to continue the current type of diplomacy between afghanistan and united states? guest: yes, most of the ministers are competent, reform minded and have been working very effectively over the past few years, and they're there based on qualifications and the
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fact they look forward to working with the united states and the rest of the international community in moving forward to succeed in there. host: tell me what you've heard so far from the people you're talking to in afghanistan about the president's announcement or plan to send additional 30,000 troops to afghanistan? what's the response on this? guest: response on the street, i was in kabel recently for two weeks, and only met with the government officials but also members of the civil society and ordinary people i left with and their response was positive. welcoming and government is welcome. they are increasing the number of troops to be deployed primarily to protect the civilians and to help provide that transitional security so that we, overtime, train and equip our national security
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forces. both afghan national army and police so that we increasingly take over security responsibility from the united states, and our a lies to help defend our country with our continued support and government is already taken charge of providing security in kabel and central parts as well as north and northeast and our forces are actively participating in combat along with nato forces in the south and east and they've conducted a number of successful operations, even internationally of the coalition forces and in the south and east of there. host: afghanistan citizens do they feel they're country will be ready in july of 2011 to begin the transfer from the united states military to afghanistan security force?
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guest: they're looking to see whether, really to see whether the government of afghanistan along with allies will accelerate peace building in afghanistan and especially equipping and paying our security forces and as well as several services in afghanistan, adequately as well as implementing theness reform so that we hopefully in 18 months particularly in three to five years as karzai in his speech said, we'll get where we need to be in terms of helping drive the process on our own, with the continued support of the international community. it all depends on where we will be in 18 months as president barack obama said in his new strategy that in 18 months we'll see where the situation in afghanistan stands. all depends on local conditions at that point of time. host: talking about u.s. policy in afghanistan with the
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political counselor and acts defense attache'. here in d.c. ashraf haidari and if you want to get involved in the (jjuápáion the number is (202) 737-0001 for republican and democrat, (202) 737-0002 and independent, (202) 628-0205. tell us, what makes candahar so guest: south afghanistan and particulp) there and two provinces where the taliban have been reinsurgent over the past, at least five years where the government has been moáu leader absent or extremely weak and that's why the taliban come back áo those two provinces so it's stra teamically important for the government of afghanistan and the coalition partners to show results in those two provinces and by and large.
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settle this as soon as possible so we take the initiative away from the taliban and increasingly provide securráy and job opportunities for a large population in that part of afghanistan. host: what kind of job opportunities you talking about? guest: job opportunities to keep expanding the population. we're talking about, of course, an agrarian or agriculturele society where of course, over the past seven years not much has happened, since for the first time in this administration we're seeing commitment to helping fund some revitalized agriculture sector that will help provide jobs for a poor and farmers as well as other jobs in the country. host: our first call for ashraf haidari comes from jeff in miami on our line for republicans. go ahead, jeff. caller: yeah, just got this
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question. you guys, you're doing great and you know, i appre(rpáe you working with our country and all that stuff, but my question to you is this. how can you have a president that's been re-elected ma'y times and you can't even take care of yourself? if your really a country why can't you take care of yourself? i think we've done enough for you. i'm not trying to be disrespectful but we're die iing and your coming over here and buildr'g businesses and you should be the first ones on the line for the your own country. then come back and here start to become american citizens and all like that. guest: appreciate that question. i would like to extend on behalf of the government and people of afghanistan, our deep condolences to the fallen soldiers and their familys and loved ones for dying to help secure afghanistan to make the united states safe and the rest of the world securer place for
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all of us. we deeply appreciate that, and we have been saying from the very beginning that afghans are ready and willing to defend our country on our own, but it all depends how quickly we enable "trá's not matter of courage, is a matter of lack of wealth. it's - every afghan is courageous and willing to defend and die for their country but we lack the skills, equipment and training to take overcome bat and security operations to help defend our country. host: next up is martin in new mexico on the line for independents. go ahead. caller: yeah, i would - let me move this.
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ho host still with us? caller: no, i probably got the wrong. yeah, afghanistan, host: let's move on to peg inx phoenix on our line for democrats. good morning, peg. caller: good morning. i have a couple of questions. you k'ow, in our own country we have so much difficulty with greed and corruption in our financial institutions and banking and so on, and i know that the problem for people in afp'istan, and i wondered how - what are the plans to address the corruption? host: we've lost peg. um... was there enough there to - guest: think so. a question about corruption. we have heard about this enough.
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it is a problem that we acknowledge and it exists in afghanistan. we're firm&y committed fighting corruption. as president karzai said in the inaugural speech promise together hold a conference as conference on anticorruption, 450 people from across the country. governments of different society as well as partners from the international community participated in the conference to discuss this practices in the fight against corruption. they have adopted a resolution. which we hope we will be helped by our allies. to implement and in the coming months and years to fight corruption effectively in afghanistan and our particularly in different government
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institutions. host: via twitter says it possible to change centuries of cultures and beliefs by force and is a force a tem(orary solution? guest: well, force or security is necessary, of course to provide enabling environment for development. unfortunately, the misperception the afghan people are backward traditional and i lil rate. i disagree with that. afghanistan is one of the youngest po populations in the world. unfortunately the rate of life expectancy is about 42 years old. the fact that they average dies at that age. i believe that more than 70 percent of our population is about 25 years of age or below that and this population is very much forward looking, they seek a future with democracy with freedom and rest of the world
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and if you ask any afghan either in kabel or outside ka!el. they will tell you that they demand a government that is functioning that will deliveri basic services and of course not be isolated as it was under the taliban and before that. so we do need to force security assistance from our a lies to help us, as i said build institutional capacity and to enable us to help thrive the process on our own soil. host: next call comes from california. scott? caller: good morning. how ya'll doing? i - it was the corruption part that i wanted to address. i think, what we're into 60 to 100 billion dollars of just -
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they can't even find. i think that - that'j huge issue in itself right there just for credibility to even attempt to rebuild that money, would have gone a long way for certain infrastructure and stuff to help the population. to you know, help them dig out of that hole. - that they're in. host: scott, lay a side the corruption for a second, do you see enough training and enough learning going on by the afghan security forces to believe that áhey'll be able to take over in 201l as the president hopes? caller: no, i don't because of the corruption. that's - i think is the main point. host: thanks. i'm sorry we'll leave it there. mr. ashraf haidari. guest: think i agree with that.
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he was referencing disfunctional corruption committed unfortunately by the way of the international community has provided assistance to afghanistan. most of the assistance in billion office dollars you heard was channeled through nongovernment mechanisms. mostly contractors and multi layers of contractors that begins in capitals all the way through the region and into afghanistan, and as well as also engines so much of the assistance by the time it reaches the targeted pen fisherys is wasted because of huge overhead costs and lack of expertise and experience in afghanistan. that's why the government from the very beginning has been requesting our partners to help us build capacity for absorbing direct assistance. direct budget support as well as
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support for our very effective, in terms of aid effectiveness of our national programs such as national solidarity. a segment product of the minister of development reaching more than 20,000 villages across the afghanistan land. many show that assistance channeled through either direct or joint mechanisms such as our minister of economic development and solidarity program has been far more effective than delivered through contractors p'd that's why this government is committed government, our administration of obama to look at this problem of waste of aid through contractors. host: is it your thought there would be more accomplished with more nonmilitary aid going on in afghanistan as apposed to the
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insurgents or surge rather, of 30,000 u.s. troops and more allied troops? guest: think we need to balance it with military and civilian surge. if you look pá the appropriations, moneys, you will see that about 60-80 percent of funding is appropriated for military operatijju and much of that, of course goes to military operations conducted by our allies. this is true of not only the united states but also canada and the rest of nato. so about 20% is of course allocated for civilian assistance. democracy and human righá and everything else that falls under civilian assistance. like i said, of that 20 percent of civilian assistance. about 80-90% is channeled through nongovernment mechanisms. contractors and engineers. the fraction of the overall
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civilian assistance, for example some 35 billion dollars given to afghanistan, only about 2 billion dollars or so have been channeled through government and institutions since 2001, shoots why i state institutions in afghanistan either remain weak or absent or just on the paper. host: talking with ashraf haidari. he is head of political affairs and political counselor at the embassy of afghanistan and the numbers are there on the screen if you want to get involves in the conversatijjy line for democrats. welcome. caller: good morning. i have a strategic question. from what i read in the papers and see on television, the major problem with the taliban is they regroup and base in pakistan and then come back to afghanistan and when they're pressed they go back.
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as i understand it, there's only a limited number of passes through those mountains. i don't know if it's 60 or 100. what i've never understood is why we can't effectively block the passes and cut off the flow coming in it isn't as if there's a bunch of super highways coming in. could you answer that please? guest: i agree with that observation. there is no insurgency in afghanistan. insurgencies normally, um... have the support of the people. they have a popular cause. in afghanistan the taliban have no cause. that means that they're an entity and that our sustained supported financed, armed and ideagy is outside of afghanistan. that's unfortunately in pakistan. they pursued a dual policy of fighting the taliban on it's own
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soil but activity supporting extremism in taliban in case of, while unfortunately i think that's in the context of relationship with india, afghanistan of course being a country, destroyed country, a down tray that has suffered the most since the end of world war ii has always tried to cooperate and based on a win/win situation where we all benefit from regional economic cooperation from onq another, including of course, with pakistan. so of course, united states has that, unless we target a ct strategically the taliban leadership and they're infrastructure in pakistan, it's really hard to defeat them and in afghanistan, the government of there and the national security forces are fighting a
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long with nato and coalition forcqj along the border to stem, in filtration into afghanistan of the taliban, but that's not enough. as i said unless the government of pakistan, particularly the pakistan military and intelligence sincerely committee to fighting the taliban on their side of the border. that's where they are. host: has president barack obama laid out enough explanation of u.s. military strategy to convince afghans why the u.s. is in their country to begin with? guest: yes, the strategy that president barack obama announced was clear enough to most afghans that the united states is there, of cou)se to defeat al queda and of cou)saliban to help afghanis, stand on our own feet and also for nato to facilitate that and to ensure regional peace and
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security for the rest of the world. so it's very much a shared partnership between the government of afghanistan and looks forward to moving into an equal partnership with nato and the united states to see success in afghanistan. host: does the average afghan view the current conflict as president barack obama's war or something left over from the bush administration? guest: well, i think they don't make that difference between the two administrations. they see this conflict as, of course, one that must be fought by humanity. it is a fight against terror and extremism and a fight against violation of human rights. of women's rights and of course fight for the united states to defend it's streets. - streets against terrorism and extremist and fight for nato to
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ensure regional peace and "t(eople of afghanistan to ensu their survival. "ttz ahead, please. caller: yes, hysell-berrh hi.. ashraf haidari. a person called earlier and said something interesting about, you know the united states is spending a lot of money, and i know you're not giving us lip service right now, but we're spending a lot of money over there and soon we're going to go to the congress again and see if we're going to send you guys some more money. i was watching a video the other day of the royal marine that are in afghanistan, i believe they're from britain. - and i was reading the body language of some of the afghanistan citizens that were supposed to be training or something - and the body
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language was telling me that, basically, they thought it was a joke. you know it looked as if in fact the royal marines said these guys are not getting paid enough and they put their lives on the line. what i want to ask you is, how long do you think it will take before you guys can take over? that's my first question. from the united states? because when i watch the video, it looked like a joke - like there was no way these young kids would be able to keep the taliban out of the country. my second question is, i read where you guys have an opium problem and that a lot of the people there are addicted to
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thatary kooti thatnarcotic. host: mr. ashraf haidari? guest: it will take time. there's no shore table of courage on the part of the afghan people to defend our the sooner we're equipped and trained and help to take over, security from our partners, the better. that's been our demand from the very beginning and i remember and the meeting that i attended along with our minister of defense we always requested that the sources for increasing the number of our forces and equipping our forces to increasingly take overcome bat from our partners, which is not only cost effective, of course if you look at - how much it costs to maintain one international soldier in afghanistan, think about one million per year. we knew that back then. with that, we can train and equip more than 40-50 afghan
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soldiers and sustain them for at least a decade. but unfortunately, we were not lessoned to until of course the change of administration and this administration realized unless afghans are equipped and trained and supportd to take over, then it's really hard to ensure long-term security in afghanistan. that at the end of the day it's the people of afghanistan, the country of afghanistan and it's asked that we should defend our country with the continued support of the afghanistan community. i agree, that the quality of training and equipment and as well as time are all necessary to make sure that our security forces and the next 3-5 years will be be preparing us to take over security from our partners. also the problem of opium is a major problem.
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it's global problem, in fact. trance national problem. there's figures that say the opium produceed afghanistan is worth some 30 billion dollars on the black market. so that means that we not only have to fight the problem of the supply in afghanistan, but also mostly in consuming countries. particular in western europe. so we need to therefore, provide resources for law enforcement and go after high value targets such as the drive)s of the narc business and traffickers and provide alternative assiáup'ce to sharecroppers. sharecroppers who cultivate opium for abilities to support % their families. host: next up for the line of republicans. go ahead, herb. caller: good morning.
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my question is, how do you - i guess the american public would like to know in the united states, we have state hood and then we have a fed c federal government. how is your country set up at this point? - and if it - and it hasn't worked i guess, or we wouldn't be there. what do you expect - what do you expect to change - let's say in the next five to 10-years. i know it won't change overnight but what about the next five to 10-years? what are you working for? guest: yes, the government in afghanistan is a central one. of course there is a center and peripheral relationship that's government and the center with local state and institutions and preventional district and village levels. we're there unfortunately, like
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i said but in most cases, decent institutions both in the center. particularly on the local level lack capacity and resources to deliver basic services which the people of afghanistan demand. we hope that in the next five years, we will be assisted both in terms of resources and building institutional capacity to help implement the national development strategy of afghanistan which we presented and conference and paris - if your interested in knowing about the details, i invite you to read a copy of the strategy and exact summary of the strategy on-line. again it's afghanistan national development strategy. it's on-line and t$ere's a website you can get it from
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there. thank you. .
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>> the admin strathes would name one other person. . it would be the co-chairs
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>> i can't speak for the administration. i've been in many hours of negotiation with them there needs to be a process like this one >> you can see the entire interview, this sunday on
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c-span. also available right now on line at c-span .org. joining us now at the c-span table caller: this is a project that's been in the work about 15 months now and we have 15 reporters. in an attempt to tell the story. it's a story most facted. we wanted to go back and show how those changesñr affect people's lives and really dig
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deep into some of the stories as the year goes by. there was a meeting in pittsburghuq the race against time for the u.s. auto makers that you are able to make this pivot as quickly as possible. >> he's provided more bridges than i think he dreamed he would ever have to going back to thatñr visit. about six months after that visit they had gone through a
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wanchingrupsi and come out on the other side. they are existing, which is far better than what the alternative was going to be. the only alternative given their financial state by the end of 2008 was to go into a bankruptcy that would have cost hundreds of thousands of jobs with not justa makers but their suppliers as well. you had the opportunity to meet with president obama early in the month. how did his ideas change >> the president has been far more involved than he ever imagined he would be he would love to be out of the auto industry by the time i leave office. that would be the key to
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getting them back on their feet. it's going to take several year for that to develop. gm is in a better position. they have things coming out. they have things pretty competitive. there's a lot of changes there host: give us a call on the line. we have a special line this morning for auto industry workers 202-628-0184. we want to hear from the folks in the auto industry.
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particularly, in this series, you write about colleen mcdonald. who is she? >> she is a woman who owns a couple of dealerships around the detroit area. as we have seen, she feels thef brunt of the down turn starting last year and is pressured by chrysler to boost their sales. they target both of her franchises for closure. she gets the news that she is going to shutdown in a matter of days. the next day, she gets a letter from chrysler that they will take the dealership as well. >> it's unusual that dealers would have dealers from both sides.
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it's an activity that has gone on before. a bill attached to the spending allowed dealers to go back to the companies and petition for the binding arbitration over how the companies chose which dealer to close. >> our first call comes from river falls, wisconsin. paul on the line for republicans. a retired auto industry worker. >> you know right now, there are more auto industry jobs than previously. down south, there are a lot of plants all over. during the negotiations with the union. they did great. the thing is when they take a
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vote for a strike, the company would say we'll give them what we want now and worry about it later. now is later. they should have went back and sat down with the company and said, 0 ok. we know to help save this auto industry, we have to give a little back to the auto companies and proceed later on with negotiations to make it better for the union worker. the unions are being stubborn. it's hurting detroit. i don't know what they are going to do. ford is doing good. they did a buy out of a lot of the plants and paid off the workers.
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general motors, chrysler did the same thing. thanks a lot, c-span. guest: thank you, sir. it's been very interesting what happened it doesn't matter what happens now between now and 2013. the other major concession was that for retirees perhaps such as yourself. the healthcare trust owns majority of chrysler.
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host: we'll go to florida. caller: if you'd like to lift tone you tube. obama conspiracy. host: a little distracted there. tell us more about the point she was trying to make. guest: the government has put about $ 0 billion into the auto
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industry. right now, the last estimate from the government is that they probably won't get back $30 billion of that that they put in. the obama administration has admitted that. their goal is to get out as soon as possible. the same time getting the government's handout. there is a lot of political pressure around the government owning a government stake in gm. it opens the door to political interfeerns. they want to close that door as soon as possible. >> is there anything that they could do to save the auto industry before it boughted out in 2008 it
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guest: it was really the credit crisis in 2008 that pushed things off a cliff. they have been able to push their wrecking days further into the future by barrowing against future earnings. they had to dole with that debt load. the only way to do that was bankruptcy. host: the[ow next call out of north carolina. caller: the l.a. auto show was
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here last week. there was some interestingñi things there. they had a turbine car there i wonder if you could talk about this. guest: sure. turbines are sort of this jumped over technology. chrysler built a couple of them. it turned out they were expensive and a little loud and that you could get some of theñ same benefits with working out gas motors. they wouldn't power a wheel. they would power the depen rator that would power the wholes.
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is the auto industry still looking at these cars? >> it is a serious effort. every auto maker in the world has some kind of electric car work going on. it's not just regulations. last year, there was a gas price spike that fasketted the ebb tire country. finally, if the technology was in reach, you had to reach out for it. in addition, regulations regarding global warning and carbon intensity a)getting stronger around the world as well.
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moving electric cars forward. host: next up from indiana. caller: next up, with this electric car thing. i think they are toing to tell people they cannot take vacations anymore unless you can stop every 50 miles and plug it in. just a lookout the window. this global warming stuff is a scam. the deporner there has the highest obama rate and he is advicing her. guest: as far as global warming. it's for real as far as scientists can tell. there are going be election
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rick cars. the ones outright now are more expensive and the ranges are some what limited. the marketñi for them is going be cities, people that don't necesarily drive that much but still need a vehicle to get around. because cities are growing, the potential is growing as well. >> gas prices are not that competitive. if gas goes back up to $4 a gallon, which everyone hope it's doesn't. that said, you will always be able to find that long trip in in the united states for decades to come. >> our story talks about the
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obama administration fasketting the industry. she was apparently daily emailing. michigan does have the highest unemployment rate. >> we are talking with justin of the detroit free press. he has been with the free press for how long? >> since november 2005. host: how long in washington? guest: november 2003.
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host: the next call from michigan. caller: i think the auto industry has been dissolving since ronald reagan was in office. i went through four plant closes since then. it's getting worse and worse here. guest: what kind of work were you doing this. the latest plant closing.
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this was the depinning of the end. daniels experience, is that similar to what we have heard there hasn't been the kind ofq jobs back in michigan. a lot of those jobs have been fasketted by off shoring to mexico or china. that's a trend that may condition as well. trade and currency are two of these retractable industries as well right now, the u.s. has fewer people working in manufacturing than it did in
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world war ii. host: you can find the article on line at freep.com. caller: you touched on a couple of subjects. one is the disparity between healthcare systems in japan. their auto industry doesn't seem to be suffering like ours. they have a national healthcare system running about 7% of gdp there. i believe for a family of four, the premium is $280 a month. the other question, why can't
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we get the high mileage cars like they have in europe? we mentioned the electric kr. caller: you do have a point on healthcare. you are right. other nations it's been a. manufacturing has gone to other nations healthcare is a place for start up industries. it's one of those issues that
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play as role. insofar as the healthcare debate, it hat not been an overarching roll. something of an expirement. the opportunity seems to be the health against gas prices as more people live in the cities and don't have to drive as much as a typical american does today.ñi gm to close down saab.
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is that going to have significant nasket from this rise? >> at this point, no. saab has been winding down the operations. it will affect sweden. this was a deal gm troyed to put together. the buyer fell through. a similar thing happened with sat urn. that deal fell through as well. it gos to the weakness in the auto industry. this is far more capacity to build cars. >> last call comes from finger lakes new york on our line for republicans.
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how are you caller: you got any snow? >> take a look behind me. caller: my question is why do we thinkford was so much better positioned than chrysler or general motors second would be what would have occurred had gm and croiceler just gone chapter 11 as opposed to today. i'll take your answers off line. thank you. guest: first off,ford tackled a lot of this overhaul well before the credit crisis.
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ford used to act like four or five different companies. he managed to stitch those units together and make them[
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forecasts weren't far after. host: thank you for being on the program. guest: thank you for having me. host: earlier this week the headlines this quote from our next guest "the world still looks to the united states to be a force in human rights." we are in a world where governments as a whole have less power than they did.
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>> good morning, sir joining us from new york city. host:o( us why has the obama lagging on human rights? guest: there's been a determination from president obama and secretary clinton from the get go to say these are really an essential peace of the foreign policy he spoke
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about the need in the united states and afghanistan as well one challenge we face is the multiple challenge and need. we find ways to push the world
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on an economic track. there is a need to insert human rights in all countries in the world. >> a commitment to human rights starts with global standards. on his second full day in office, president obama issued an executive order prohibiting the use of torture or official cruelty by any u.s. official and ordered the close ofñi guantanamo bay. we will participate in the united nations of our own human
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rights record just as we encouraged other nations to do. by holding ourselves accountable, we reinforce moral authority to adhere to obligations under international law. among them not to torture or engage in political killings. >> what's the plan going forward. how will they hold others accountable? guest: important what we are
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doing in the second day and announcing the closing of guantanamo. we have to follow through in those thingsñi we have a ways t go. we expect you to doñi the same. every government in the world expects you to permit to this view of the united nation. we are pushing to that to make sure as governments come up, we are making sure those reviews are more serious than they have been in the past. also going the last several months, i probably talked about very specific things on human rights. i met with the government
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yesterday. we are really taking each country saying we have an agenda based on not u.s. standards if you are calling outside the united states, call 202-628-0104. what's been the response so far from the countries you have been asherting the human rights policy.
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the approach we are taking in the notion we are working from a universal standard we are talking about. a change occurs from within the society. our primary focus is how to help cree a space for members of civil societies, women's groups and the media to operate and raise these issues in a way consistent with their own culture and background. there is a recognition on our part that the thing we could do different is to create an open political and social process first call comes
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from florida. tim on the line for democrats. >> yes, i saw what they were saying about human rights and the war we are fighting. i'm a hard working man, i pay my taxes. i'm a single dad, i take care of my child. there's nothing here to help us. host: tim, how is be taking
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care of human rights taking away from helping your family? caller: we shouldn't be over this. if you read the bible, it's clear on that. my place in the government is to create a stronger institution in those countries the state department has cut funding for several non-profit groups. others say these groups have little to do with advancing dem crassy there. can you tell us about that situation?
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guest: it's very challenging to figure out how to best influence change. change is clear liqueuring there. there is a growing disseaks with the government after the elections earlier this year. there were street demonstrations those condition. we've done a range of things quietly to support those pushing for change without becoming so pup lick about it that we become part of the government's story. the government would like to demonize the united states and say everybody who is opposing its policy is a tool of the united states. we don't subscribe to that. it's not true. one of the things we've done in particular is to work with those trying to use the new media, the internet, et cetera.
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one of those thing sthazz when people were texting each other using twitter. young state department official realized twitter was going to cut down her servicing at a critical moment and called up and made sure the service stood open. we are looking for new ways to speak to one another. it's an important time there. we are very involved in a range of ways. host: speaking of twitter, w me.
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>> it's inñi our interest to am fy the voice of those who seek change. whatever we can do to encourage that kind of a debate to go on and support people in the middle of that, we ought to be doing it
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host: next to the line. caller: thank you. one of the key focuses of the administration. depen with opportunitys in iran. iran already calls the united states theñi great satan they already want to kill us. at one point, it is kind of lip service. it's not so much me being critical when you see your government leader doing one thing. they are taking this soft approach. it seems cowardly in my mind tfments more lip service than
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anything. something does happen and you host: michael? guest: with respect to china, president obama did visit china recently we continue to be concerned about religious freedom we are concerned about prisoners and their freedom he spoke in a public meeting and
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talked about the willingness to speak their mind. human rights issues are on the front of that issue. both president obama and secretary clinton are looking to get results not just speaking. we are trying to see where are thereñi place is to push together. host: next on the line, ronald from wisconsin. caller: when he was a senator, he took a high profile trip to africa. now the president, we don't
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hear much from him regarding the issue of darfur millions have been forced to flee across the border into chad. there is an envoy appointed working more broadly on the issues this is a coming apart
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of the fragile peace between the north and south. part of the challenge is to dole with that emerging crisis and deal with the continuing challenge in darfur. you are right. it's a year sister and a continuing issue. we are trying to deal with the humanitarian side. we are also supportive of the efforts. we have a lot going on there. host: our next call from bill in nebraska.
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caller: first off, merry christmas. you were not specific about what those other things were. you are not talking about the bill of rights but a new set of rights to be created. when obama goes around the world valley, what that is is the area of self sacrifice. what he is really doing is
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sacrificing the american taxpayer or american people. host: we'll leave it there. michael? guest: when we look at ourselves. this country was founded on human rights. it is a part of our dna. it served us well for 200 years. the idea that we would continue to improve our society. it makes us more capable and effective as we go out in the world. the second thing is as the motion is exactly the right way to approach these issues. we are not saying we've abandonned our principles. we are pushing for things like the right of people to practice
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their own religion and speak freely and participate in a political process. those are things we believe in. we are very determined to do it in a way to get a practical result. we want to make a difference not just make a point. for us, it's really important to tie to figure out how do we apply those principles in a way to make a difference in people's lives host: we are talking to michael polsner. next call on the line for republicans go ahead. caller: i've read articles about poor women in europe almost being sold into safery
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and prostitution and the culprits from israel. you know we never say anything about this. host: have you seen evidence of this? caller: i've read articles host: where? caller: in magazines. i've seen it on tv before. host: ron, we are going to move on to alcorn, wisconsin. clayton? are you with me? caller: i am. host: turn down your television. this will work better. caller: i have it turned off. i guess, you know water boarding has been determined as
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torture. long before obama declared that it was torture. we have cheney running around the country saying we should be torturing and doing more of this. we don't want other countries or people doing it to us. yet, here we are doing it knowingly that we shouldn't be didding it. my question is why didn't anything ever come about on cheney even today still advocating at the top of his lungs? guest: before i came into government. i've been in this position a little over three months. i worked for many years with a private human rights organization.
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i probably spent the last sim or seven years working on the issue of human rights national security. i believe we turned a page on that. this president won't allow that. we made terrible mistakes. they hurt us in the world by engaging in cruel practicesb we have gun to look back in several ways. the attorney general has appointed a special prosecutor to look at some abuses by the cia in the previous
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administration. over time there are going to be other ways to evaluate what happened in the past. the purpose of doing that is to prevent future situations or leaders. deciding that that is the right policy. we should never, no government should engage in cruelty or inter gation. as long as i'm in government, i'll make sure to push for that around the world. >> next up, calling on our line from palm coast, florida. >> good morning. i have been following the development of some of the things that your department have been pushing in my country. by giving them instrument, you spoke about before to improve
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communication. my question to you. have anyone evaluated that behind them is a potential of developing strife throughout the country. i say that buzz of the support of the civil rights in the 1960's. we refrained from getting involved directly and encouraging or supporting the civil rights movement. how would you feel had we as a small country, provided civil rights movement with material support. >> we'll leave it there. you have the last word. guest: i think the united states and any country welcomes those who are supporting
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efforts, peaceful efforts to promote open debate about issues of human rights and dem crassy. likewise we are totally approach when we reach out to human rights defenders, religious leaders, et cetera. it's part of our history and consistent with human rights. it's really the only way things are going to change in this world. our policy is engaging from people within societies and giving them a greater voiceçó i the best way forward. >> thank you for being on the washington journal this morning. >> we are now going to check in by phone with alex. the staff writer with the
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congressional quarterly going to be talking with us to give us anup date on the healthcare debate happening on the senate fluorine as we speak. >> sure. it looks like they have 60 votes for the bill. they think they've got 60 or they are very close. . .
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>> republicans forced them to read three or four -- three or 400 pages of the bel pre of their meeting as a good party -- as a caucus to make sure they have their caucus together for the bill and they have 60 votes to pass that will lead up to a it will move toward passing it. host: what the bones of contention? caller: we believe that a couple of things would strengthen the individual and employer mandates and in belle. it would increase the penalties for people who do not purchase insurance and for employers who do not provided to their workers. they have also apparently
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increased a medical our payroll tax that was already part of the bill. -- a medicare payroll tax that was already part of the bill but i don't know by how much. the have come to some sort of compromise on the abortion issue. olympia snow thinks the language is more strict. i have not looked at it yet so i am not sure. host: alex wayne of congressional quarterly, late last night, the senate wrapped up and came back first this morning. was there a chance for them to go to sleep or was there arm- twisting? caller: they were here pretty light was senate toward nelson -- senator nelson. most of the senators look pretty well rested. some of them might have spent the night in the capital but there were some cots out here
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but most of them got home. some people look like they had trudged through the snow to get to the building current. host: how many republicans will vote for this? caller: zero. lgqolympia snowe is the one most likely to vote for the bill but she has unanswered questions. she said it would be difficult for her to support the bill. host: once they vote on this was the next step? caller: the vote monday morning will be about filibusters' and there will be a vote wednesday to take another step and i think the vote on passage will be thursday. everybody will then go home very when i come home in january, they will go to a conference committee with the house to work out the significant differences between the house and senate bill. host: after they both will be done for today?
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caller: there will not be another boat today. the republicans are done for the day accept some of them have to stay on the floor to make sure the bill continues to be read. there is no vote today or tomorrow but the next vote will be monday morning at 1:00. host: will they continue to read this amendment tomorrow if it takes that long? caller: they can't, they have to finish this today to have a vote monday morning because of the way that senate rules work. there is an obscure procedure called cloture. the rule is that you have to have one intervening day between the day you file your cloture petition which is today and the day you vote on your cloture petition which is monday. they have to get the reading of this amendment done today in order to have a vote on the morning. host: working on the manager's amendment was not the only bit
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of business they had to take care of today? there was also a vote on the defense spending bill, correct? caller: correct. host: that went off without a hitch? caller: i think so, if there was a problem i have not heard about it. i think they still have to handle the debt limit letter in the week. it is not clear how they will do that. host: none of that will keep them from getting out of the this afternoon? caller: no, they will be gone this afternoon and most of them will probably not come back till monday morning when they have to both. host: thank you very much for checking in with us. i want to tell you again about newsmakers this week. our guest is senate budget committee chairman kent conrad who has proposed a new commission to come to grips with the $12 trillion national debt during the interview, which you can watch tomorrow and watch it on line, he talks about the role
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of congress in addressing the u.s. debt and what he thinks a commission should address the issue instead of relying on the pay as you go principle. >> we need to give a group and opportunity to come up with a plan and if that majority of the group can agree to a plan and it comes to congress for a boat and under our proposal, it would take a super-majority and the president can veto it. there are many opportunities for our college to be fully involved. they will all have a boat. it would require a super- majority. >> the blue dog democrats are proposing a pay-as-you-go approach which would require that if congress does not pay for new spending, there would be mandatory across-the-board cuts. you are not a big fan of that because you think they are loopholes. if it came down to it in all the way to get your commission set up was to have their version of pay-go, would you go along with
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it? >> it would not be smart me to negotiate in public. i am actually a supporter of statuary -- statutory pay-go but not one that has three trillion dollars -- $3 trillion of exemptions the middle class tax cuts, i think it would be entirely reasonable to make those permit. it is reasonable to have the alternative method of tax and the estate tax and turn over those matters to this commission for a final determination, a final plan that would come to congress for a boat. vote. i don't favor statutory pay-go with $3 trillion of exemptions. >host: you can see the entire
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interview tomorrow on newsmaker at 10:00 a.m. and 6:00 p.m. on c-span. it is available right now on our website, c-span.org. joining us now is arthur auerba;her certified public accountant. he drops in about this time every year for a little bit of year-end tax preparation advice. it would be a great day to start working on your taxes. >> nice to be back. host: what is the biggest change in tax preparation that has occurred since last year? guest: the homeowner credit is the first one. the special deduction for people who purchase automobiles to get the sales tax deduction. there are changes for people who claim the standard deduction on being able to claim real estate taxes over and above the standard deduction obviously, we
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have had the "cash for clunkers" program which has caused people to buy more cars. if you watched the president the other day, we now have another program to improve your home and do the energy efficient credits. there have been a number of things that have happened. host: let's talk about the homeowners credit. guest: that tends to be very confusing for the public because of the area's top month that have been attached. we have a $7,500 credit which applied in 2008. in actuality, that was not really a credit. it was an interest-free loan from the government. those who took that beginning in 2010, they will have to pay the first $500 chit back to the government and you pay back the $7,500. when president barack obama and
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the current administration took office in february, february 17, they passed the $8,000 credit for homeowners for people who purchased homes in 2009. that credit was supposed to expire november 30. on november 6, the president signed a bill passed by the congress that extended the $8,000 credit beyond the end of 2009. you have to go to contract by may 1 of 2010 and you must occupied the premises as your principal residence by july 1 of 2010. that is for first-time home buyers which is defined as anybody who does not owned a home in the prior three years. the addendum to that bill that passed in november of this year was a $6,500 credit for existing homeowners. if you owned a home for at least eight years and for five consecutive years it has been
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your principal residence, you can get a $6,000 $500 credit -- $6,500 credit. it has the same caveats if. . for people who are in active duty military, some of those time and suspended to give them a chance to be discharged from active service and come back into civilian life. host: in order to qualify for and to make use of this $8,000 credit, you have to have purchased your home up to and including a date after april 15? guest: yes, you have to go to a contract by may 1 of 2010. as a practical matter, because of another provision for the bill that says even if you settle on a house in 2010, you
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can take the credit on your 2009 filing. anybody who is contemplating or in that window of time and they know they will do this, the advice would be to put your 2009 return on extension beyond april 15 so that if you occupied and satisfy the date requirement, you can take the credit on the 2009 return and not have to wait until april 15 of 2011 when you filed your 2010 return. host: if you took advantage of the cash "for clunkers" program, what advice would you give for those people? guest: the money you got on that program is not taxable. that is typically the question you get asked. for those who will appreciate the vehicle, it reduces your basis. you have a lower cost basis for depreciation. anybody who was in there, they are entitled to that separate sales tax deduction and did you
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happen to be watching in a state that does not have a sales tax -- like delaware, you can take some of the excise taxes at the way you will claim that on your tax return is by and get to the state and local income tax deduction on schedule a assuming you itemize. host: our guest is with us for the next 45 minutes or so. if you want to get involved and get some year-end tax preparation advice, the number is on your screen our first caller is from long island, new york. caller: on calling about the estate tax that was repealed until 2010.
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there was a bill that was passed by the house at the end of november that is now sitting on the senate floor. it looks like the senate is very busy with the health care. bill and it looks like they will not get to the estate tax bill sometime this year. if they do it in 2010, can it be retroactively applied to january 1, 2010 or will the window. be exempt from the estate tax? guest: when the senate gets around to doing this, it will more than likely be retroactive to january 1. even in the way congress operates, i don't think they would create the untenable position of having a window there where there would be no estate tax and later on there might be an estate tax. the way i joke aboutd't this whi do seminars -- i don't think you, if you were hooked up to life support and somebody had to make a medical decision and if
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they pulled the plug, you have no state tax and if they waited, there would be an estate tax. i don't think anybody wants to create that scenario anywhere. host: our next caller is from chico, california, go ahead caller: by a been watching since your consumption and this is my first time getting through. i want to be a first-time home buyer but i already went through it one time but i failed. ally allowed to do it again? guest: i don't know what you mean by failed. if you did not succeed in purchasing a home, then you are there. you have not owned a home within three years. caller: i have been watching you
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since your inception and any time somebody wants to speak about israel or the jews, you simply cut them off. i don't understand why. i would like to hear the rest of what that man was going to separatsay. host: i was asking the man of the head and references and he didn't. caller: i know but you have been -- you always cut them off. host: i don't believe that is true but thank you for your call. next up is thornton, colorado, your question? caller: you know roughly how long it takes to get the $8,000? re-filed by tax instead of waiting until the tax due date,
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i filed now. i wondered how long you thought it might take to get the $8,000? guest: you filed your 2008 tax returns and settled on a house and you want to use the $8,000 back on the 2008 return and filed an amended return. is that correct? caller: yes. uest: that will generally take between six weeks and 12 weeks. when you file with the irs, they will have to locate your original filing to make sure that nothing else changed except the credit and then they have to put in the refund approval process and a check will have to be generated. caller: so they could spend more than 12 weeks? guest: i would contact the irs. i would try it on the general phone number which i and tell te problem is and they will be able to check.
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caller: thank you very much. host: assuming that one has all their holiday shopping done and they are homebound today with the storm that is moving up and down the east coast, what should people be doing today to get ready for their tax season, april. ? guest: they should collect all their receipts. i have said numerous times, my personal belief after 49 years of doing this is that most americans pay more taxes in general than they have to because we're the world's worst record keepers. we will simply not write anything down part of, april or march when you sit down and do your tax return, everybody becomes the late karnak, they think about the prior year and try to figure out where they can go. if you have an opportunity to start getting your bills and receipts ready, particularly for
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things like a charitable contributions, also look at your credit cards. many people do not realize that taxes are based on a calendar year if you use the credit card to pay medical bill, make a charitable contribution, by something that might be deductible in your business, it is the gear you make the charts that determines the year of the deduction, not when you pay the credit-card company. it is as if they advanced to a long and you are paying off the lot over a period of time on the credit card. it is the year you make the charge. if you are snowbound, now is a good time to drag out all of your credit card bills and start looking through their and taking out your charitable contributions, your medical deductions, anything else that might be deductible host: our now -- host: our next call comes from georgia caller: caller: you mentioned you get a
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credit for $6,500 for improving your home for energy efficiency? guest: it is not for the energy credit. that is for somebody who sells an existing home and moves into another one within the appropriate time. the energy credit -- it depends on what you do. if you put in new windows, there is a percentage of what you spend up to generally a maximum of $500 for the windows. if you put on a new roof, if you did calking, weather stripping, whether prattweather is asian, e are differing credit. if you went the whole route and put in a wind generator or did a solar panel, there are credit for that also. that is dependent upon how much you spend. in many of those instances, you need to get a certificate from the contractor which you will
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have to attach to your tax return in order to be able to claim the credit. host: this is part of "cash for caulkers?" guest: it is all about whether reservation. -- whether is asian. -- weatherization. you can get a certificate for during the switch to have to attach to your return host: you mentioned $500 for windows but if you want to go nuts under house and put in new windows, and coughing and appliances, is there a limit to how much you can write off? guest: there is a limit to each segment of this great if you did everything in the program segments, you could probably end up with about a $4,000 credit.
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i am a cpa and i look at this from a cost benefit analysis. i once sat down and figured out roughly how much you would have to spend to get the full $4,000 credit. since the maximum is a percentage of what to spend so for windows, is a maximum of $500 at -- or 10%. that means you have to spend $5,000. if you want the full 44 of dollar credit, you have to spend the neighborhood of $26,000 to get a $4,400 credit on your return. for most folks, you have to sit down and figure out whether that is a worthwhile thing for you to do. host: we are talking year end tax preparation advice with arthur auerbach, a certified public accountant. our next call comes from alabama. caller: my daughter bought a car in april. they were talking in the house
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about the tax deduction on the corporate then they decided to bring it down to a sales tax or i don't know. this is before the "cash for clunkers" program. does he get any break under taxes or does he have to itemize or deduction to get a credit honor taxes? guest: to is not a credit. it is an additional deduction vary the deduction is limited to the sales tax paid on the acquisition of the new car and you can get that deduction whether you itemize or take the standard deduction. in either case, you will get that. the advice is to follow the instructions that are on the 1040 and those instructions are already available on the irs website. they can go to irs.gov and look for the 1040 instructions.
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since the government has already put out a publication 17, that is the one you want to look for it is downloadable. you can look at the appropriate things and publication 17 is called "your federal income tax." host: next up is seattle. caller: i'm a tax preparer and i am wondering if you have any ideas on how to waver the self employment-socials of purit socy tax who do not have a social security number so they do not have an account. guest: i would have to go into this offline to find out why they do not have a social security number. it is somebody who was not born here and does not have a social
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security number automatically, i think what you need to do is go online and investigate and look at form w7, which is called an individual tax identification number which can substitute for the social security number for a limited period of time for those people may have emigrated here and do not have a social security number. host: for those who decide they want to do their taxes themselves, what would you gauge to be the average time to do that? at what point point if you have gone past a certain out of time, should you think that you might want to get it professionally involved? guest: that would depend on the complexity of the transaction. to prepare any return, it requires patience. you need to get your receipt.
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i cannot emphasize that enough. if you're going to attack this on your own, do not just go to the mall and buy whatever program you will buy and install it on your computer and think you will hot in there because it will start asking you questions. if you do not have your material organized, it will ask you a question and raise your frustration level when you have to dig out what ever the receipt is or what ever the question is to go any further in the program. the more times that happens, your frustration level rises and then you start yelling at the computer and the next thing is you yell at your spouse and the next thing is you yell at the irs. you just have to come down and follow the instructions one step at that time. host: brownsville, texas, go ahead. caller: my daughter bought a second home, not last year,
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yes, not 2009, 2008. she bought the program and put in the computer and she got a credit but then the irish came back and said that she should not have put that. the president said that you could claim your second home from one year to one year -- from what year to what your can't someone use the credit for a second home? guest: that only applies to the latest credit which the $8,000. if you did this in 2008 and were in the $7,500 time frame, that was not available for a second hall. that was only a principal residence. host: next up is camden, new jersey, go ahead. caller: is it snowing there yet?
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it is snowing a whole lot. i am getting divorced and for all of 2009, claims three exemptions, me, my daughter, and my wife. my attorney wants to get a divorce done in december and i want to do that because the bills by the hour. i do not know how that will reflect in my filing. i don't know if i will lose those exemptions. guest: you have a whole bunch of issues in there. number one, if you complete the divorce process and it becomes final by december 31, if your marital status on december 31 and that depends on the filing status you pick on the return. if you're divorced goes through effectively at the end of
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december, you are a single individual. you have lost the advantage of the cheaper rates, married filing jointly. or even married filing separately because you will not be considered married anymore. your status as of december 31 determines that. if you could have your kids live with you for a good portion of the year, you might qualify for what is qualified for head of household status. that is and in between rate. if you lose the dependency exemption and the divorce becomes final, you are probably looking at a significant tax bill because you are only withholding predicated on you being married and filing jointly. and you will switch at the end of the year as single which are higher rates and higher brackets which means your withholding will for a short of your tax. you could conceivably of money.
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-- owe money. you could negotiate with your former spouse as to who will claim the deduction for dependents. that is something your legal representative will have to deal with. host: did we get your question? caller: i guess there is no reason to put this off until next year guest: i can answer that for you. that depends on your individual circumstances. host: let's move onto tommy in manhattan. caller: good morning. in 2001, i was in an automobile accident and i was a rented bike two automobiles. i received two separate
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settlements, one was in 2002 and one was in 2003. i knew that money was non- taxable for by federal standpoint but a couple of years after those settlements, i started getting notices from the federal irs that i owed taxes on the money. obviously, i contacted the irs and wrote letters and letters but i went back to the lawyer and the lawyer did not send in the paper work for both settlements. that would explain an exempt a from the irs owing anything. he did that after some years. my question is, if i would have paid those taxes unbeknownst, with my lawyer have been able to
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hide that money from his standpoint. was this a/8q scam where he was hiding in, and are there people paying taxes on money like that? what do you think might happen there? guest: i do not have a clue. there is no way for me to be able to enter that question or even comment on that. host: arthur auerbach is a cpa specializing in financial planning and closely held businesses. lancaster, california is next. are you there? go ahead caller: i purchased my home in 2007 and have lived in it. it has declined in value, almost $80,000. i changed my exemption from
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three to nine when i received a drastic pay cut. should i change it back so i do not owe money? guest: if you bought your house in 2007, the answer is no, there was no homeowner credit available for the 2007 year. secondly, you asked about changing your exemptions. obviously, by increasing to nine exemptions, you substantially in -- reduce your withholdings and if your income went down proportionally, there is no problem. if you are earning more money, maybe you want to look at how many exemptions will now claim. host: she mentions a about the declining value of her house? guest: yes, unfortunately, if you still own the home, there's nothing you can do. it is similar to buying a stock and the stock market for $100 and it goes to $50. there is no deduction until you
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sell it. the unfortunate part of a principal residence, is a personal asset and there is no deduction for losses on personal assets. if it declines in value, you make less money but you get no benefit under the tax code. host: new york city is next. caller: good morning and thank you for some clear explanations of a complex topic. my wife and i were just discussing 529 plants. we read somewhere that there is a deduction this year or a credit this year for opening a new 529 -- we have a daughter. guest: the only thing you get on the federal return, you get actually no tax benefit. there is no credit, there is no deduction for putting money and a 529 plan. the deduction is under state
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return. in new york, there's a distraction from income will reduce your income if it contributes to a 529 plan in new york. it is more at the state level but to get any benefit for the deduction. i think 529 plans are but excellent planning opportunities because the earnings in the plan are not subject to current tax and when the money is withdrawn, if you spend it for education, there is no tax on any of the withdrawal as long as it is spent for education. i think they are absolutely phenomenal planning opportunities. if you are in a state that has a prepaid tuition plan because there are different kinds of 529 plans, they are broken down into savings plans and prepaid tuition plans. if you can do the prepaid tuition plan and your child will go to school in the state where
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you reside, which would be to your in your case, that is a really good deal. the 529 prepaid plans are disappearing and the states are getting killed on this because you are contributing now on an actuarial assumption and they are guessing as to what the tuition will abate when that child gets in there. given the financial difficulties that the states are in, aides to the higher education institutions are dropping, tuition is going up, but to cite a guaranteed contract with the 529 plan that no matter what the tuition goes to, they will pay the bill. host: how much is ty if you put away money in this ty 529 and when your child gets to be 18 and says they will not go to state school in new york and they want to go to harvard? guest: it makes a difference in
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the prepaid plan. most plans will only give you in state tuition or the tuition you will pay, whichever is lower. if you do way 529 savings plan, it does not matter where you go to school. host: columbus, ohio, go ahead. caller: thank you. a few months ago, we had -- were given a tax cut and changes were given where we had less money taken out of our paychecks. , april 14, -- come april 14, will there be a new tax table set up and will that be a tax cut and and have we been misinformed by this?
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will we be had with a bunch of taxes on what we have paid throughout the year? guest: this is not the first time this happened. this happens twice during the previous president's administration, where in order to stimulate the economy, the government and the treasury adjust to the holdings tables. the whole idea was to give you money in your neck pace a you can spend it and stimulate the economy. that happen in the current administration in the current year, effective april 1. it was called the work to pay credit. that reduced the withholding tables so everybody ended up with more take-home pay. that did not have a corresponding reduction in either the tax rates that will apply to your income or the tax tables. if you are a single individual and your w2 is the only income
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in the household, you might have a lesser refund then you had the previous year or you will break even. the people who will have a problem next april in the filing season are those where there is a husband and wife both working. the tables presume that you are the only working spouse in the household. when both of them work, you both of the withholding reduction and you put the money together on a joint return and that is where you could be substantially underpaid. the irs has been warning people about this for six months. 2if you go to irs.gov they have an announcement that if you took this reduction in withholding to go back and look at what your tax picture will bait so that there are no surprises in april. host: earlier, you said that because americans by and large do not keep good records, that
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they end up overpaying their taxes, if you go back and find out that better record-keeping would have allowed you to pay less taxes, how long a period of time do you have to go back and try to get that money back from the government? guest: it is basically three years from the time you file. assuming you filed your 2008 return on april 15 of 2009, that means by april 15 of 2012, you would have to claim a return on the 2008 year. host: the government is under no obligation to inform you of this? guest: absolutely not. we are on the honor system here and what ever you calculate, that is assuming it's correct, that is what you get. caller: i paid off by balances
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on my credit card last year. is it better to cancel my credit cards or less -- or let the credit card company do it? when the bush tax cuts go away in 2011, will single person at $45,000 per year, will my taxes go up or stay the same? guest: generally, if you are going to have that level of income, even if the bush tax cuts go way, it will not affect you that much. you will be in exactly the same position, pretty much. regarding your credit cards, i would suggest you talk to somebody who is a debt counselor or somebody like that because i don't know how it would affect your credit rating if that is what you're looking at, your credit score, whether you cancel the card or in some instances like i have run my own personal
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credit reporter rob back. there are credit cards listed on there for stores and places that do not exist anymore. they are still on there. when i get out of school ages ago, i had a mobil credit card and in exxon credit card. that is now exxonmobil and is a card that i use that it is still listed on a credit report. it's as no activity for however many years. there are stores in washington, d.c. area that used to have their own credit cards. when i get here, i got one of those. they are all out of existence or merged into something else. those cards still show up on their even though the companies don't exist. you need to determine how bad does or does not affect your credit score. host: next up is douglas from
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arizona. caller: good morning. i made some home improvements to my home throughout the course of 2009. i had my roof replaced. i change the air conditioning unit at my home. i heard that i can write these costs off unqualified as a home improvement or i haven't told you can only claim those at the time you sell your home. which is true? guest: the benefit for what you did, if you did energy efficiency improvements, you can get a credit, not a deduction for the things you mentioned on the phone stare. that would be a percentage of what you spent for it all of those improvements at to the cost basis of your house and
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ultimately, when you sell, you have a higher basis so you'll have a lower gain. you'll get a credit benefit immediately but in the long term, you are increasing the basis of an asset that to hold and therefore, you will have less of a game when you sell or dispose. host: next up, hamilton, alabama, go ahead. caller: hello, my question is -- my husband and i have updated to a more energy efficient furnace. unfortunately, we are retired. we have no taxable income. how can we take advantage of these breaks? guest: on fortunately, if you have zero taxable income, the energy credits are not refundable. they can only reduce your tax liability to zero and since it
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is already there, you'll not get much of any benefit from the federal taxes. i would check to see if there is any particular benefit at your state level in alabama. i would also contact my energy supplier, whoever that might be, because they may be able to give you a break and your energy rates considering your residential and have instituted energy savings and if you are retired and over 65, some of the energy companies also have different rates for people who are retired. host: we have a twittered message -- it used to be that the upper income people who got most of the money back from compound interest interest rates now are apoint 0.025%. why save?
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guest: the answer is to support yourself at retirement. i used to have this debate with my late father. so security -- social security does not fit social or security. we pay the most to the people make the most so it is not social and it is not secured because you cannot live on what they pay you. if you start with that premise, the reason you will say this because when you decide to stop working, you will be able to maintain your lifestyle and standard of living to which you have become accustomed. if you do not sit by your own these days, i don't know what else i can do to motivate people. one of the things that surprises me is why many folks do not take advantage of the nondeductible ira. that is now in, let let's or agi limits, anybody can do that. they raised the agi limits for a
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roth-ira. you can contribute money to a roth-ira and will not get a break now but that money has not tax-deferred accumulation. it is accumulating tax-free. what every parent, there'll be no tax when you withdraw the money. one of the planning opportunities i would suggest to folks is that you take advantage of what is there, the non deductible ira is one, and the roth-ira is another. you need to use those things because you need to do something to help you save for retirement and maintain your standard of living. host: greenbelt, south carolina, go ahead. caller: good morning.
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nobody talks about the one-year mortgage holiday. they love this idea. why can't they make the banks stop all this brought to? fraud. ? guest: i don't know where the tax question is there. if you ask questions about what the banks and financial institutions do not get regulated, that is what the bill called finro took care of this way. host: let's go back to the telephones for another tax question out of louisville, ky.
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caller: good morning to both of you guys. i appreciated. i want clarification on the new car purchases. if you bought a new car in 2009, for people who really don't understand the tax deduction thing, in layman's terms, will individuals like myself who normally gets a tax refund, will lead more than likely increase the amount of money i will get back on my return? many of us do not know with a tax deduction thing is. will increase my refund? guest: u.s. does this have a question about the car sales tax but in general, here is the way you have to think of it. as you increase your deductions,
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you are reducing your taxable income. if your taxable income was $10,000 and the rate was 10%, you owe $1,000. if i increase my deductions to wear my taxable income was $9,000 and might rate was 10%, i pay less. your target of the car sales tax. that has to your deductions. this adds to your deductions and it reduces your taxable income and therefore, everything else being equal, you should get more money back host: in an earlier question use the words agi and that stands for? guest: adjustable gross income. host: here is another message from twitter -- some say a roth- ira is based on trust and will
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not be taxed by a future government. a regular ira does not have the breast. guest: that is absolutely right. in a regular ira you are paying normal income rates. if you bought stock in your regular ira for $100 that goes to $10,000, you'll pay ordinary income rate reduction -- you do not have the events of the capital gains rate. given the way things are going in the government, it appears that rate will be higher in the future. the advantage of the roth-ira is that you are paying the taxes now on what you know and what you withdraw later will be free. i hear what you are saying. can a congress 10 years down the road decide to tax the roth-ira? they might but if they do it at that point in time, what you are paying taxes on now under the
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internal revenue code is your basis. that will not be taxed again. if they decide to tax anything later on, it will only be the earnings between the time you put the money in and the time you withdraw it. . not, not the contribution. host: is there anything you see on the horizon in congress that will affect the way we pay taxes in 2010? guest: if you are not into electronic filing, there sure is especially for paid preparers. i would encourage everybody to e-file. regardless of how you feel about which party is in power, e- filing is an expensive set from the government side. it costs them fractions to process and e-file return versus
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what it will take when you file a piece of paper. someone will have to open up the envelope and start to process and data enter everything. no matter what side of the coin you are on politically, e-filing have to be the way to go. it is a cost reduction for the government. for you, the filer, it will enhance the speed with which you will get your money back. and if you file a paper return and you want a paper check or even a direct deposit check, it will take extra time to process of that. the quickest way you can get money back is to electronically file a tax form 8888 and designate an account to have the money to come back to and you'll get a direct deposit into your bank account. host: our next call comes from sanford, florida. hello? caller: a while ago, someone
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asked about credit card. i know the answer because i listened to suzy orman. it is a bad blow to the credit report if you do not return a credit card. if you use it twice a year and buy anything and pay it off, you have covered it and you will not pay any penalty but you have to be careful about the credit cards and have you handled them. host: this sounds more like a statement about credit rather than taxes. caller: one man called at about
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that. the tax man said he could not answer the question and i wanted to help the other poor, struggling people out there. host: we appreciate your help will move onto everett, washington, go ahead caller: i am a small business or and i'm looking to make a decision to purchase a car before the end of the year and i want to know if there are any other tax advantages other than you have spoken about? guest: what kind of car will you buy? caller: it will be under $45,000 but it will be for the business. guest: you will be able to get a depreciation deduction for the car. the unfortunate thing is you waited until december to do this and the depreciation deduction is only for the number of months that the car was in
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service as a business asset. you are running on fumes now because you are at the end of the year and at best, you might get one month for the depreciation. if the choice is to do it in december or january, january will get to a whole lot more deductions against your 2010 income than buying this vehicle in 2009. caller: there is nothing else that will expire other than the tax deduction in 2009? guest: just a separate sales tax deduction is due to expire at the end of 2009. that is in the air extenders' bill which is all has already passed the house and is sitting on the floor of the senate waiting for senate action caller: excellent, thank you for the help. host: we want to let our viewers and listeners know we are expecting a news conference with
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senator ben nelson. he will talk about his support for a closer vote and the health care bill. hopefully, that will take place at the conclusion of this program. in the meantime, we will continue talking about taxes with of arthur auerbach. our next call is from bridgeport, conn. caller: i have a compensation question on a settlement. this was about 1995. it was compensatory damages which rendered me disabled. i am on disability now and social security. i never received a 1099 for that. they told me it was not taxable. however, in 2005, they started sending me a 1099 but it was a 1099 miscellaneous.
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the place i worked for told me to ignore it and continue filing like a never received it. now what has happened, earlier last year, in 2008, i started getting letters from the irs stating that i was an independent contractor and they should not have sent me 10. i had to pay social security tax double and i had to pay interest on this. do i have any recourse against my employer? what can i do? i am in dire straits, here.
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guest: first of all, you need to seek professional help. this is more than i connector for you on the telephone. between the time you're entered and when they started sending you the information returns, the law changed. congress did change the law. when you got the 1099 miscellaneous and this applies to any body, if you get an information return from somebody sending it out, what will happen is that you have got to recognize that return on your tax return. host: thank you very much for being on the "washington journal" this morning. host: calle[captioning performey national captioning institute] [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2009]

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